1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of removing a silicon- or germanium-containing photoresist. The invention comprises out-diffusing a silicon group within the silicon containing photoresist by heat treatment using a pre-silylation bake chamber and removing the silicon containing photoresist by a dry developing process using oxygen plasma.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, there are two kinds of method that removes such photoresist, the wet etching method using a solvent and the dry etching method using oxygen plasma. The wet etching method is used to selectively remove the photoresist formed irregularly on the silicon substrate, and the dry etching method is used to remove the photoresist exposed to light.
However, since the photoresist layer is cured at a high temperature through a silylation process, the photoresist is not dissoluble in the solvent, and therefore the photoresist cannot be removed by the wet etching method. As for the dry etching method using oxygen plasma, the silicon group within the photoresist layer, reacting to the oxygen, forms a silicon oxide film(SiOx) on the surface of the photoresist, and the film contaminates the plasma strip equipment involved.
Therefore, a third method is desired to remove the photoresist containing a silicon group or a germanium group without such problems as mentioned above.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to solve the problems set forth in the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of removing a photoresist containing a silicon group or a germanium group. The present invention comprises out-diffusing a silicon group with the silicon-containing photoresist by a heat treatment using a pre-silylation bake chamber and removing the photoresist by a dry developing process.